Thames Water reservoir improvement project on track

As part of the six-month project, which started on February 17 2011, seeks to improve the management of local water supplies by building an additional storage cell has been built on the Hungerford reservoir to increase its capacity and maintain consistency of supply during peak times of the day.

It is now in the final stages of the work, ahead of a four-week testing period to check the extension to the reservoir is working as planned.

Thames Water head of capital delivery Lawrence Gosden said the works will help safeguard Hungerford’s water resources for the next 25 years.

He said: “The aim of this work to expand the reservoir is to manage local water resources more effectively over the long term by increasing the treated water we hold in the reservoir.

“It will also allow us to carry out maintenance work at the site with minimal disruption to customers’ supplies.”

There has been some controversy surrounding water abstraction from the UK’s rivers by water companies, with Thames Water coming under scrutiny in BBC investigative programme Panorama for its use of the River Kennet.

However, Thames Water said while Hungerford’s water supply comes from the River Kennet after use the town’s wastewater is treated and fed back into the river.

Water is abstracted from underground boreholes before being treated, cleaned and fed into Hungerford reservoir, which stores the water and feeds it on demand into the local mains network.

Thames Water has also started pipe work in a bid to reduce its reliance on the Kennet.

Carys Matthews